We discussed the best of the best exotics under $100,000 and the monstrous cost of ownership of one of these beautiful cars, but we never went into the cost of the insurance. So here we go.
Insurance is obviously very important when buying an exotic car, especially used as the smallest damages can cost more than the depreciated value of the car, and therefore leaving you with the cost of the car in repairs. So what does it cost to insure a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Aston Martin?
You have two choices when it comes to insuring an exotic car, you can use a mainstream insurance company like State Farm, Progressive or Liberty Mutual or you can use a specialty collector company like Voyager or Grundy Worldwide. These seem like easy options until you actually make the phone calls and get the companies to run your driving record. You would think that having a perfect record with no tickets or major accidents would make this an easy task but nope.
Allow me to share with you an experience with Hagerty Collector Car insurance and their under writing process. They refused to insure our Lamborghini Gallardo because two years ago someone rear ended us? How was that our fault? These ridiculous under writing methods are what makes it difficult to find the appropriate insurance company.They want your $3,000 a year but don want to actually assume any risk. In other words you must be perfect and definitely not young. The actual process itself is harder than anything as companies even require you to fax them your driving record instead of pulling it themselves.
Finally, simply make sure that the car is insured for its cost and not cash value, which means that you assign a value to the car and that no matter how old or how many miles, the payout in case of a total loss will be the full cost of the car and not the depreciated cash value. This is a must have on any policy that covers an exotic. The reality remains that you must pay to play and that sometimes mean that you must be willing to stop and ask yourself do I live within my means?
For the record, with my clean record I was able to insure a Lamborghini Gallardo for under $1500 a year with State Farm.
But yet…Keep in mind that there is always a way to “Drive a Luxury Car for FREE” That’s the real Secret to Success.
